First-year Soquel High coach Dwight Lowery went to the archives to end the Knights’ longest losing streak in Stump history Friday night.
Lowery, a nine-year NFL defensive back who played quarterback at Soquel, re-implemented the ground-and-pound, double-wing attack he ran under coach Ron Myers from 2001-03. In doing so, the defensive-minded Knights controlled the clock and shut out rival Santa Cruz in the second half to emerge with a 20-13 win.
“All I gotta say is hard work pays off,” Knights running back/linebacker Zeke Thomas said. “Coach Lowery pushed us to our limits. He told us this was going to be our paycheck. And where’s the Stump? That’s our paycheck right there. That’s our paycheck.”
Surprising Soquel (3-0) snapped a four-game losing streak to Santa Cruz to re-establish itself as a force in the 57-year-old series, which it leads 42-14-1.
The jubilant Knights raced to the two-piece wooden trophy — which features engraved scores for every game — and returned to their sideline to celebrate loud enough so that all of Santa Cruz could hear.
Lowery, the sixth head coach in school history, is only the second to win his first three games. He joins Bryan Sloss, who opened 1999 with four straight wins.
“I don’t think about those things,” Lowery said. “I just think about how to improve and where to improve. We’re still trying to build a program. We, by no means, don’t have anything figured out. I don’t have anything figured out. I’m learning as I go. I got great assistants that help me. The kids, when they’re attentive and do things right, things go well.”
Santa Cruz did all its scoring in the second quarter. Junior quarterback Dillon Danner capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive to open scoring by connecting with Henry Campion from 16 yards out. The Cardinals carried a 13-7 lead into the half after Danner finished a nine-play, 74-yard drive with a 10-yard keeper.
Santa Cruz finished with 92 yards passing on 17 attempts and it rushed for 155 yards on 33 carries. Running back Nathaniel Loza led the way with 58 yards on 14 carries.
“We got dogs on defense,” Thomas said. “That’s it. We got players that wanna play defense, that wanna make big hits, that wanna get interceptions. We got the best defense in the league. That’s all I got to say, we hold it down. No one’s scored in the second half.”
Knights quarterback Tanner Jones finished 5-of-10 passing for 103 yards, including a 42-yard scoring strike to Thomas in the second quarter.
The Knights regained the lead in the third quarter, when running back Darius Bedford ran for a jaw-dropping, ankle-breaking 61-yard score that featured a spin move in traffic at midfield to help break free.
“That was an excellent play, great effort by him,” Lowery said. “You know, he runs so hard. And just the fact that he’s a sophomore, he has so much room for growth. I’m proud he was able to make a play for the team and really spark us.”
Thomas added a 17-yard scoring run to cap an eight-play, 53-yard drive. He also had a 7-yard gain on 4th-and-2 to extend the drive.
Late in the third, a Soquel penalty while Santa Cruz was punting gave the Cardinals new life — and first down at the 49-yard line. But the next play, the Cardinals fumbled away the football.
“We’re doing it hard enough,” Lowery said. “We’re doing some real undisciplined things, keeping them in the game. I thought they fought real hard, to the point we had to pull some things out of the archives, so-to-speak. But we got the job done. … We got to take this momentum and continue to grow.”
Said Cardinals coach Bubba Trumbull: “They pulled a nice little curve ball out and kinda went back to that old Soquel offense, the double wing. I’m sure Dwight got that out of Ron Myers’ playbook. It kinda threw us for a loop and they were able to get some big plays out of that. I think we settled down and stopped that for the most part in the fourth quarter. We just didn’t have the offensive answer to get that game tied up.”
The Cardinals had just two offensive series in the fourth quarter and they went four-and-out both times to fall to 0-3.
“We gotta improve on all aspects,” Danner said, “because not one person did anything right. First half, we were pushing the ball, running the ball pretty good. But second half we didn’t have that effort.”
Demitrius Gallegos recorded an interception for Santa Cruz.
Soquel’s Jeremiah Corpuz had a solo sack and teamed up with Michael LaFont on another.
Bedford said the team’s work ethic has paid dividends.
“We work hard for this and we want this,” he said. “We wanted it and we got it.”
On Friday, the Cardinals travel to Sunnyvale to face host Fremont (1-2) at 7 p.m., while the Knights face host Scotts Valley (2-1) at 7:30 p.m.
Contact Jim Seimas at 831-706-3256.